'Invernía', a piece of traditional Galician music ideal for cold winter days

We're starting a new year and the first blog post of 2026 will be about music, the universal language par excellence.

'Inés', a beautiful song about a Galician woman who became Queen of Portugal after her death
'Quena fésta e o día', a song from medieval Spain with a great beginning

In 1989, my favorite musical group, Milladoiro, released the album "Castellum honesti" (The Castle of the Honest One), a name associated with the Western Towers of Catoira (Pontevedra), built in the 12th century by order of the first archbishop of Santiago de Compostela, Diego Gelmírez (1068-1140), to face the frequent Viking raids on the coasts of Galicia. The album contained ten traditional Galician songs.

The album is a true gem within the extensive repertoire of this Galician folk music group. The album's final track, "Invernía," is an instrumental piece dedicated to winter, as its title suggests. It's a fine example of descriptive music that evokes the cold days of this time of year. Like the other tracks on the album, "Invernía" was recorded at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, under the direction of engineer Brian Masterson.

"The album charted in the United States that same year, an unprecedented feat at the time for an album with that theme," notes Discmedi, the record company that released it. In 1989, Milladoiro performed for the first time in the USA, playing at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York. You can listen to the studio version released in 1989 here:

As a curiosity, if I remember correctly, it is the only Milladoiro song that includes the sound of a bell, towards the end of the piece, one more instrument from the wide array that this group uses in their pieces: Galician bagpipes, Irish bagpipes, bodhrán, Celtic harp, Irish flute, hurdy-gurdy, transverse flute, clarinet, bouzouki, violin, acoustic guitar, ocarina, oboe and crumhorn, among others.

In 1994, Narada Collection Series included this track on their album "Celtic Legacy", a compilation of Celtic music (then very fashionable), with "Invernía" being the only Galician track on the album.

In 1995, Milladoiro re-released this instrumental piece on their album "As Fadas de Estraño Nome," a double CD recorded during several live concerts on their tour of Argentina. It was Milladoiro's first live album, released in Japan by the Tokuma label and in the United States by Green Linnet, which gives an idea of ​​the significant international reach of this Spanish musical group. "Invernía" was the fourth track on their second album. You can listen to that live version here:

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Photo: Elentir. A snowfall at the University Campus of Vigo (CUVI) on January 10, 2010.